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FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2013, file photo, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner holds the World Series trophy on the court before an NBA basketball game between the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks in Boston. Baseball’s 30 ... more >

BALTIMORE — Major League Baseball Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred and Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner were left as the remaining candidates to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner after MLB Executive Vice President Tim Brosnan withdrew before the start of voting Thursday.

Brosnan’s withdrawal was disclosed to The Associated Press by a team official who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.

Owners estimated Manfred had the support of 20-21 teams headed into the meetings this week, Werner of about six and Brosnan one: the Cincinnati Reds.

A three-quarters majority, 23 of the 30 teams, is required to elect a commissioner. Selig, who has run baseball since September 1992, plans to retire in January.

Teams vote by secret written ballot in MLB’s first contested election for a new commissioner in 46 years.

Each candidate spoke to all owners for about an hour Wednesday and met in sessions Thursday morning with groups of 10 teams.

Werner is supported by Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Moreno. Other teams have said Reinsdorf wants a commissioner who will take a harsher stance in labor negotiations for the deal to replace the collective bargaining agreement that expires after the 2016 season.

Selig, 80, has ruled baseball since September 1992, first as chairman of baseball’s executive council and since July 1998 as commissioner. The second-longest-serving head of baseball behind Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-44), Selig announced last fall that he plans to retire in January 2015. The trio of candidates was picked by a seven-man succession committee chaired by St. Louis Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr.

Manfred, 55, has been involved in baseball since 1987, starting as a lawyer with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who assisted in collective bargaining. He became MLB’s executive vice president for labor relations and human resources in 1998, received an expanded role of executive vice president of economics and league affairs in 2012 and last September was promoted to chief operating officer. He helped lead negotiations for baseball’s last three labor contracts with players and the joint drug agreement that was instituted in 2002 and has been repeatedly strengthened.

Werner, 64, was the controlling owner of the San Diego Padres from 1990-94, triggering fan criticism for the payroll-paring departures of Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, Tony Fernandez, Randy Myers and Benito Santiago. He has been part of the Red Sox ownership group since 2002, a period that included three World Series titles. While working at ABC, he helped develop Robin Williams’ “Mork & Mindy” and later was executive producer of “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne” at The Carsey-Werner Co.

MLB’s last contested election for commissioner was after Spike Eckert was fired in December 1968. With the requirement then a three-quarters majority in both the American and National leagues, teams split between San Francisco Giants vice president Chub Feeney and Yankees president Michael Burke and failed to elect anyone during 19 ballots.

Bowie Kuhn, counsel to baseball’s Player Relations Committee, was elected commissioner pro-tem on Feb. 4, 1969, with a one-year term. He was voted a seven-year term that August and remained in office until October 1984, when he was replaced by Los Angeles Olympics head Peter Ueberroth.

Former Yale President A. Bartlett Giamatti took over from Ueberroth in April 1989, died later that September and was replaced by his deputy commissioner, Fay Vincent. Selig, then the Milwaukee Brewers owner, teamed with Reinsdorf to head the group that pressured for Vincent’s forced resignation in September 1992.

Selig led baseball as head of the executive council for nearly six years, including the 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that canceled the World Series. He repeatedly said he wouldn’t take the job fulltime before he formally was voted commissioner in July 1998.